She Says… Long Days & Report Cards

The last few days have been long. In retrospect, I think Owen was dealing with an ear infection that flew under the radar, but at the time all I saw was aggressive behavior at home and at school, general fussiness and a lot of “NO!”. I even attempted to institute our first (second?) “real” time-out after he threw a little stool in anger, a la 1-2-3 Magic. I say attempted because although in the end he did sit for a few seconds, it was preceded by a lot of laughing in my face and trying to escape and overall not really understanding why he was sitting on the stairs. There’s work to be done there, but that’s a whole different post.

Amidst the rough behavior, he’s been rocking the underwear at home (both over the weekend and every night when he gets home from school), so I think this actually may stick.

And speaking of school, it’s report card time again! Ok, ok, Developmental Report. It’s not grading him on how smart he is, but rather placing him on a continuum from “Accomplished” to “Requires Support” on a variety of different skills. I am always so intrigued to get these reports from his school because they are very detailed, and they help give me a sense of how he is developing in comparison to his peers (since he’s my only kid so far, I really have nothing to compare him to except himself). And, although every parent would like their child to be perfect in every area, I’m also interested to see which skills he is lagging behind on so I can keep an eye out for ways to practice them at home.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The 2-3 year old set is evaluated on skills like:
– Attempts new skills with confidence
– Expresses and regulates a wide range of emotions in an age-appropriate manner
– Easily tolerates a variety of sensory stimuli
– Transitions smoothly between activities
– Seeks adult help when needed

Owen is all over the map in this area (as I imagine many 2 year olds would be). Though he is “accomplished” in a lot of areas, he still needs quite a bit of help comforting himself when he is upset and controlling his own frustrations in a non-aggressive way (see above with the stool throwing incident!).

SOCIAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
– Cooperating with adults
– Engaging in parallel play
– Engaging in cooperative play (taking turns, sharing toys)
– Shows concern & sympathy for others
– Actively participates in circle time, small & large group activities

Owen has been a super social kid since the day he was born, and that hasn’t changed much. He’s very outgoing and from what his teachers tell me, he’s always anxious to yell out answers and participate in activities. He knows everyone at school by name, and even knows many of his friends’ parents’ names too. He still has a ways to go with following group expectations like taking turns and listening when others are talking, but I’m going to guess most of those issues come from being an only child and coming from a long line of attention hogs/loudmouths.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
– Able to follow simple, multi-step directions
– Able to focus for an age-appropriate amount of time on a chosen activity
– Able to sort and match objects based on different criteria
– Familiar with basic shapes, colors and letters
– Able to count to 10
– Remembers where objects belong

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
– Communicates effectively with age-appropriate vocabulary
– Expresses self in simple, intelligible phrases
– Is able to form sentences
– Is able to answer questions when asked

These skills are where Owen really excels. His teachers noted that he loves to engage any adult (or peer) in conversation and loves to tell stories. Future actor? Comedian? Who knows, but I know the kid loves to talk!

SELF HELP SKILLS
– Demonstrates independence during meals and snack (hand washing, disposing of trash, etc.)
– Able to remove clothing/attempts to put clothing on
– Assists in clean up time
– Cooperates in diaper/potty usage

This was an area where Owen was marked as “progressing” for many skills on his last progress report. It was definitely helpful to hear this, as it reminded me to ask him to do some of these things himself rather than doing them for him when he was 18 months – 2 years. Now he’s quite good at taking off/putting on his coat and hat (recently mastered “the flip trick” and now wants to show anyone who will watch him put his coat on), and last night he even demonstrated he could do pants too. Progress!

The gross motor skills always make me chuckle — how would I know if he can balance on one foot?! Definitely one of those times I’m so thankful that he has so many awesome caretakers who are tracking his development and challenging him in different ways. Apparently he’s doing great on all of these skills except jumping backwards. That’s not a life skill I’m very worried about 🙂

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I post these not because most of you really care how Owen scores on these individual skills, but because I find the lists of what this age group “should” be doing really interesting. If he wasn’t at this particular daycare, I wouldn’t have any clue about asking him to try some of these things, so I thought I’d share!

5 responses to “She Says… Long Days & Report Cards”

Way to go, Owen! Our daycare does similar report cards and I, too, love them (as well as parent-teacher conferences … yes, for my 2 year old!). I subscribe to the who it takes a village philosophy and these women she spends her days with are teaching her so many things we wouldn’t think to teach her. I also love looking at what she’s doing and seeing where she’s ahead or right on schedule.

Laughing about the one foot – we showed her “flamingo” a couple nights ago and she was wobbly but tried 🙂

She’s been big on asking for help lately and it’s ridiculously cute. “Mommy FIX Maya shoe. Daddy, help Maya BLANKY.” (emphasis hers ;)) This is such a fun stage …

I love how you shared this! I am always fascinated with these as well. Since my daughter isn’t in daycare, I only get these reminders from the ASQ I have to fill out before well visits (plus your blog!). It’s a really good reminder, since I tend to just dress her and I probably need to do more of letting her do it herself. Some of those gross motor ones are really hilarious. And jumping backwards? Really?
I love how Owen is so social to all ages! Knowing the parents’ names? Amazing!
I also had to laugh at “Remembers where objects belong” because my daughter gets so upset if something is in the wrong place! Heaven forbid WE forget where something goes!! 🙂
Thanks again for sharing, Kate!

I enjoy reading these because my daughter attends an in-home daycare so our caretaker doesn’t do formal “report cards” for the kids with the different skills. It’s nice to see where she “should” be in her development.

I really like 123 Magic. Another goodie is Love and Logic. I have used this personally as a parent and professionally as a teacher.

It is so interesting (and fun and frustrating too!) to watch them develop and it is also so nice to have someone on the outside (teachers) look and track things objectively and share their perspective.